Forge comes out in December. While that’s great news for many Halo players, the hype will still die if we don’t get something to nibble on, and soon. Allow me to elaborate.
Forge is an essential ingredient in the Halo trifecta (Story-Multiplayer-Creation). As such, 343 has put considerable effort into making forge the best it has ever been, I have no doubt. But after a month of having and playing a game, you begin to finalize your internal assessment of what that game ‘is.’ Halo 5 is good without forge, and it’s got almost enough content to be worth $60 without it. But players are solidifying what they see Halo 5 as. And that doesn’t include forge. This is important because when those players inevitably burn out Halo for themselves, the addition of forge a couple weeks later is not going to bring them back for long. It’s the icing on the cake that they already mostly ate, and has been in the fridge all week. And when mom says “hey I put some icing on that cake from last week,” you go back for a max of one piece.
The Halo community needs something substantial to hold us over, or many of us will lose interest in forge just as it releases. I’m not saying we won’t come back, but we won’t be as excited about Halo when we do, and there’s a huge risk associated with that. You still have the hype right now, 343, use it. Build some more hype on top. Give us something before we lose interest.